The region, with its long coastal line and vast deserts, is particularly vulnerable to climate change and its various forms of extreme weather and worsening disaster situations
THE Middle East region has generally been in news because of its oil wealth, its tensions, conflicts and its wars. However, there is a wider issue, rarely highlighted, in the region that needs serious discussion. This is a broader survival crisis with global implications, but its impact is particularly severe in the Middle East.
The survival crisis encompasses multidimensional environmental challenges, notably climate change, as well as the accumulation of destructive weapons, including nuclear arms.
The Middle East, with its long coastal line and vast deserts, is particularly vulnerable to climate change and its various forms of extreme weather and worsening disaster situations. There have been several serious droughts and other disasters in recent times which have not attracted the attention they deserved because of a preoccupation with conflict issues.
Sandstorms can be a much bigger problem in the region, as is further desertification. Water scarcity and depletion of natural water resources is already a very big issue in many countries, and this can worsen the problem of land sinking and subsidence in several areas. As temperatures rise over time, the reliability of air conditioning as a protective measure may be compromised, particularly in areas with limited access. The resource base can be threatened with other kinds of disasters including cyclones and coastal floods.
The excessive dependence on other countries for essential goods and services including food can prove deeply troubling in times of trade disruptions and international shortages.
The oil wealth, considered vital to protect against all these problems, will become less of an asset as the world faces increasing pressures to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels in times of climate change and bigger technological breakthroughs in the quest for renewable energy sources as the main target in future.
In addition, the use of more destructive weapons can destroy some parts of the region including oil and gas deposits even more horribly than what has been the fate already of Iraq, Syria and Yemen and also Libya (taking a wider geographical understanding of the region). When oil wells and depots are attacked in wars, it is not just the target country that is harmed; the pollution can reach several neighbouring countries including the attacker and what is more, the entire world gets affected because of the massive GHG emissions.
The extreme destruction caused in Gaza by Israel with US and Western support has been condemned widely. Lebanon has also suffered heavily in war and civil strife. Jordan remains highly vulnerable to civil strife as well as external aggression. And a worsening of already volatile conditions in the West Bank region is widely feared.
The Middle East already has a nuclear weapon power in the form of Israel, and along with Iran, at least three other countries may be in the quest for nuclear weapons and/or other weapons of mass destruction at some point of time in the near future. The issues relating to acquisition of nuclear weapons can, on their own, become a cause of very disruptive wars, as seen in the actual attacks on Iran and the threat remaining of bigger ones.
The increasing aggressiveness of presently the only nuclear weapon power in the region as well as the almost unlimited support extended to Israel by the US keeps the region tense most of the time and has caused massive destruction in many parts of the region, most notably Gaza.
Hence, in terms of various possibilities of the survival crisis, the Middle East is a particularly vulnerable region which must prepare well in advance to ensure its protection from this multi-dimensional crisis.
Unfortunately, the region has been moving in the opposite direction of increasing threats of war and environmental crisis. Its ruling elites appear to have placed highly excessive confidence in the forever ability of oil wealth to ensure their luxury, if not the needs of all their people. However, this excessive faith in black gold may prove to be ultimately their undoing. It is still not too late for them to give up their unrealistic and even dangerous illusions and instead opt for a path of safety, peace and balanced development.
The priorities of the region should be for a broader unity, not for seeking and promoting selfish and narrow interests of ruling elites but for seeking a future of peace, safety, justice and environment protection for the entire region. An important aspect of this must be to seek a justice-based future for the Palestinian people. The entire region has not fulfilled its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people, and as the first step towards a path of peace and justice the region should be united in peacefully a just solution for the Palestinian people.
At a time of an approaching survival crisis, the kind of destruction Gaza has suffered in recent times is extremely tragic and such destruction is possible only by those who do not care for the very high danger of the survival risk they also face. Such horrible irresponsibility could be possible only because of the inability of the region’s other countries to stand with unity and determination for the cause of justice and justice-based peace, and this inability in turn can be traced to their preoccupation with narrow and selfish objectives.
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Bharat Dogra writes extensively on environment, development and welfare issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own, and Clarion India does not necessarily subscribe to them. He can be reached at: bharatdogra1956@gmail.com
